whether the world is eternal and incorruptible.

pythagoras [and plato], agreeing with the stoics, affirm that the world was framed by god, and being corporeal is obvious to the senses, and in its own nature is obnoxious to destruction; but it shall never perish, it being preserved by the providence of god. epicurus, that the world had a beginning, and so shall have an end, as plants and animals have. xenophanes, that the world never had a beginning, is eternal and incorruptible. aristotle, that the part of the world which is sublunary is subject to change, and there terrestrial beings find a decay.